Lakeland voters reject 'strong mayor' proposal

LAKELAND — A three-year campaign to change Lakeland's form of government failed overwhelmingly Tuesday night with more than two out of three voters rejecting an amendment to the city charter.

Lakeland voters declined the amendment that would have instituted a strong mayor-commission form of government by 69 percent to 31 percent, instead sticking with the current form in which decisions are made by a seven-member commission and passed to a professional city manager.

"I'm proud of the Lakeland voters," former City Manager Gene Strickland said. "We've had a progressive city with political stability. What a wonderful combination."

Strickland had been a principal spokesman for No Boss Mayor, a political-action committee supporting the current form of government.

"I want to say that our opponents were very good at their job," Strickland said. "They had a comprehensive, well-financed, well-directed, hard-working campaign. I give that to them, they were very focused and they did a great job. In any other city, they would have been a winner, but in this case they picked the wrong city."

No Boss Mayor's major donors included some of Lakeland's wealthiest and most influential business leaders, but the majority of its $134,560 in campaign contributions through Nov. 2 came from the International City and County Management Association, a trade group for city managers.

But the sum, though notable in Lakeland politics, was dwarfed by the $952,275 contributed to Committee for a Strong Lakeland, the group that started the referendum process nearly three years ago.

Gregory Fancelli, who almost entirely funded the campaign, said low voter turnout was a major contributor to the outcome. Only 1,200 more votes were cast in the race compared with the 2013 mayoral election between Howard Wiggs and Gow Fields.

"We knew that would be a problem for us," he said. Strong Lakeland had advocated for by-mail ballot process earlier this year, but was rebuked by the sitting City Commission.

Fewer voters voted "yes" on the amendment than the number of signed petitions Strong Lakeland collected to put the referendum on the ballot.

"If we had decided the race in September by having the 65,000 ballots mailed out, which is what we were proposing, every registered voter would have received a ballot — we would have reached more voters. Only (14,000) voters ended up voting this time around," he said.

Not having a strong slate of candidates in the mayor's race also hurt, Fancelli added. Bill Mutz, a well-known civic and business leader, competed against three newcomers to Lakeland politics and government. Mutz, who won the race with 72 percent of the vote, did not support the initiative that would have granted him additional authority as mayor.

Fancelli said his opponents, who lobbed several personal attacks against him, were more effective in their messaging.

"It shows the PACs won, the negativity won," he said.

To those that stayed at home on Election Day, "if you show up, you get to decide. If you don't, someone else decides for you," he said.

Bruce Anderson, a Florida Southern College political science professor and the chairman of Committee for a Strong Lakeland, said he was proud the campaign got the question to voters.

"I think we were successful in at least one thing, we gave the people of Lakeland a choice," he said. He also thinks the initiative helped get people thinking about how their government functions.

"More and more as we go forward, we need to have a discussion as a city as to how the city is governed and what our city looks like, and really that we can be complacent about things," Anderson said.

The principal Strong Lakeland advocates will break down the numbers in a coming after-action report, but Fancelli said he will likely set aside the public profile he has garnered in the past three years of advocacy.

"The result, as much as it really stings, it also sets me free," he said. "I don't think I could have done any more than we have done."

Christopher Guinn can be reached at Christopher.Guinn@theledger.com or 863-802-7592. Follow him on Twitter @CGuinnNews.

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